An old friend, a new mission
by Tala Blaze
Summary: A small secret is revealed about Tala before she learns of the mission that she is to be sent on.


She sat at her desk, a pen rested in her hand, a few pieces of paper had been discarded already, they were covered in scribbled out writing. She held the pen and put it to the paper, this is what she wrote:

I watched him, all those years I watched him. I saw him grow from a lonely young boy to a strong ninja. I was only five years older than him but I knew what he felt, I had felt the same thing but I was lucky, I left my village and was accepted by the leaf village, only the third Hokage knew what I truly was. I saw it all, I watched from the skies most of the time, I watched many things, that was something I found easy, watching and gathering information.

My name is not important, what I am is not important but what I know may be, I must write this so that those who need to know can find out but I must be careful as some should never learn what I have learnt…

"Tala!" She was startled, her pen scratched across the page, she frowned and dropped the pen, getting up she went to the stairs.

"What is it?" She called down. When she got no reply she ran down the stairs, turning the corner she looked into the kitchen, a boy with messy dark blond hair leant casually against the table. He had deep blue eye, his blue forehead protector kept his hair from them, he smiled at her. She always noted how tall he was and how well toned, he was wearing a dark blue jacket but he had opened it to reveal a close fitting white t-shirt, he wore baggy black pants, his kunai holsters were there as always he was never seen without them. Quite noticeable was the sword on his back, it was slightly curved and she knew that it was highly sharpened.

"Ready to go?" He asked her.

"Huh, go where?" She blinked in confusion, she looked up at the ceiling as she tried to remember whether she had made plans to go anywhere.

He sighed and put his hand to his head, "come one Tala, how do you always forget?" She grinned and shrugged. He smiled at her and shook his head, "we have to go and see the fifth, she told us the other day."

"Oh ok," They walked towards the front door, Tala stopped to look in front of the mirror in the hall. Her red hair was spilling over her shoulders, her blue eyes burned in her face. She wore a white t-shirt that hung off one shoulder and stopped when it reached her mid-riff, she wore black shorts with her kunai holster around her right leg, white strips hung from the top of her shorts. She pushed her hair over her shoulder and tightened her forehead protector.

"You gonna stare at yourself all day?" He asked from the door. Tala stuck her tongue out and slipped into her shoes. They headed out of the door and ran towards the Hokages place.

They sped through the village, it was early afternoon and the village was full of people moving from one place to another. When they reached the Hokage's place the ran up the stairs and into her office they both stood in front of her desk and waited for her to tell them why she had summoned them.

Tsunade looked up at them, "Kai," she turned to face him, "wait outside." Tala frowned, she saw a look of surprise bloom on her friends face but he didn't argue, he walked out of the room looking back at Tala before closing the door. Turning back to face Tsunade she waited for her to say something. She watched as the Hokage stood up, she went to a shelf and picked up a scroll, Tala frowned wondering what was in it.

Tsunade opened the scroll and placed it on her desk. Tala looked at it and frowned, it was blank. She looked up at Tsunade and was about to ask what the scroll was for but he words died on her lips, she saw that Tsunade was making hand signs, she finished and said, "reveal." Tala frowned this was odd even for Tsunade.

Something caught her eye, the scroll, it had writing on it. "Ok what's going on?" She finally asked.

Tsunade sat down before answering, "this is a scroll that the third Hokage left, it's one of a pair." She looked up at Tala, "this one tells of a girl who came to the village, a jinchuuriki." Tsunade looked up at her meaningfully.

"Me huh?" She nodded. "So what about it?"

Tsunade sighed, "we have an important mission and we need to send you on it, you can take who you want. We feel that you'll be safer than anyone else we could send due to your…abilities."

Tala nodded, something occurred to her, "why did you call Kai here as well?"

Tsunade looked surprised, she had almost forgotten about the boy. "Oh yes, bring him in." Tala nodded and went to the door and opened it, Kai was leaning against the wall, seeing her he walked in. They both stood in front of Tsunade's desk. "Your mission is to infiltrate Orochimaru's hideout. We know where it is now, we just need you to go in and look around, find out how many people are there and look for Sasuke. Don't let anyone else in the village find out, we think Naruto may return from his training soon and if he finds out he'll want to go and it's to soon. Take a four man cell, Tala you're in charge, take those who you think may be best suited."

Tala and Kai nodded in unison, Tsunade flicked her hand and the two of them ran from the room. "What was she saying to you?" Kai asked.

"Nothing important." She wasn't sure whether he knew, maybe he did but they didn't talk about what was inside of her. Kai nodded, they reached his home and stopped. They went inside and he went to fetch his bag, "so who are we taking with us?"

Kai shrugged, "how about Mike and Tsubaki?"

She shook her head, "Tsubaki's still on a mission."

"Hmm…how about Kero? He got back today, I'm sure he'll be happy to go on another mission."

"Sounds good. Let's go ask them. I'll get Mike you get Kero." Tala said. They both nodded and left the house, they sped off in opposite directions.


End file.
